‘Get on your knees and pray’: Upstate family visiting Jamaica try to get home after Hurricane Melissa
By Miya Payton
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ABBEVILLE, S.C. (WYFF) — What was supposed to be a trip to celebrate multiple birthdays turned into frightening moments for one upstate family. A small group of people from the Upstate are in Jamaica waiting and hoping to return home. Communication with their families has been minimal due to signal disruptions from Hurricane Melissa.
Dominique Smith and Victoria Sutton and several of their family and friends landed in Jamaica and reached their hotel last Saturday, that’s when they learned of what was ahead of them. Smith recalls his first thought after hearing about Hurricane Melissa.
“How are we going to get home?” Smith said.
Smith called his mother, Shamekial Gray, who was at home in Abbeville. Gray gave her son the only advice she knew.
“Everybody, get into the same room. Y’all get on your knees and pray,” Gray said.
“Everybody was in shock and ran to the room, we been in the room ever since,” Smith said.
When Hurricane Melissa hit, Smith and Victoria’s mothers’ phones went radio silent.
“Couldn’t sleep,” Gray said. “Sitting up waiting for a call and never got one until the next day.”
“Instantly, I just started praying that God would spare them of this storm,” said Victoria’s mother, Tamara Sutton.
Now that the storm has passed, it leaves behind uncertainty.
“We really don’t know when we’re coming home, actually,” Smith said.
“We’re just ready to get home to our kids,” Victoria said.
“I have to hear every day in the morning when I get up from my granddaughter, either can she call her mom or will her mom be home today?” said Tamara.
On Facebook, there has been an outpour of community concern and prayers.
“I love you and I thank you for praying for us, and believe it or not, you’re keeping us going,” Smith said.
Smith’s mom doesn’t know when she will get a call from him again and doesn’t know when he will get home, but says there is one thing she is certain of.
“I don’t ever want him to leave,” she said.
Gray and Tamara said they want the community to continue to pray for not only their children but also for all those who want to return home and for those who live in Jamaica.
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